Various Thoughts from a Catholic husband, father, and software engineer

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

That Championship Feeling

(Memory of below may be a bit hazy as the events happened when I was a child, but looking them up would ruin them).

As the Philadelphia 76ers entered the 1982 offseason, they had had the following results in their past 3 seasons:

1980: Lost in Finals on rookie Magic Johnson's 42 point game substituting for the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center

1981: Lost in Eastern Conference Finals to the Celtics, blowing a 3-1 series lead.

1982: Lost in Finals to Lakers

They were reaching the end of Julius Erving's prime, but otherwise had a young core of guards Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney, and big man Darryl Dawkins.

So, that season, they signed reigning MVP Moses Malone to an offer sheet, leading to a trade in which they acquired Malone for Caldwell Jones. They let Dawkins go, and went on to a dominant regular season, 12-1 record in the playoffs (coming just short of Malone's prediction of "Fo Fo Fo"), beating the injury-depleted Lakers in the Finals.

History has not been kind to this team, despite its dominance, and that it was the last professional championship until the Phillies won the World series 25 years later. Erving continued to age, Toney's feet gave out, and there were some horrendous trades that the acquisition of Charles Barkley could not overcome. Boston solidified their team with Dennis Johnson, and the story of the 1980s NBA was the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, with 76ers as an afterthought, despite making three of the first four Finals, and winning one in the most dominant fashion.

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In the past several years, I've become a sap for championship celebrations. I tear up watching athletes I hardly know achieve the pinnacle of success. Perhaps it's because our regular lives offer few of these moments of undiluted success. There's always the next task, something that could be improved or could have been done better. But if you win a championship, that's as good as it gets.

But I had little interest or emotion seeing the Warriors cap off their championship last night. When you win 73 games in one year, and then you add an one of the best 5 players in the league, aren't you supposed to win the championship? I'm guessing this is now non-Sixers fans regarded the 1983 76ers, except that the non-Durant Warriors had already won a championship two years earlier.

Look, Kevin Durant seems to be a great guy, and he has the right to guide his career toward whatever he wants (just as I can with mine). I just don't find it as compelling as, say, the late 1980's Pistons overcoming the Celtics, and then the Lakers to win a championship, or the 1990s Bulls overcoming those same Pistons, and maintaining their excellence for six championships.

Does this mean that the Warriors are destined to the same fate as the 1983 Sixers? I don't know, but I think it's more likely than them dominating the league indefinitely and joining the ranks of best teams ever.